Attatchment L1-5

Question 1

What is attachment?

Answer 1

Attachment is an emotional bond between two people.

It is a two-way process that endures over time.

Question 2

What is reciprocity?

Answer 2

A two-way mutual process where each person responds to the other and elicits a response from them.
- studies have shown that infants coordinate their actions with the caregivers actions in kind of conversation.
The regularity of an infants signals allows a caregiver to anticipate and respond appropriately. This sensitivity to infant behaviour lays the foundation for later attachment between the caregiver and the infant.

Question 3

What is interactional synchrony?

Answer 3

An interaction between caregivers and infants where they interact in such a way that their emotions/actions mirror each other.
Two people are said to be synchronised when they carry out the same action simultaneously.
- this was studied by Meltzoff and Moore.

Question 4

Explain a study on interactional synchrony.

Answer 4

Meltzoff and Moore: controlled observation.

• selected 4 different stimuli (3 hand gestures + a facial expression) and observed the behaviour of the infants in response. The study was conducted using an adult model.
• A dummy was placed in the baby’s mouth during the display to prevent any response. After, the dummy was removed and the infants expression was filmed.
• found that infants as young as 2-3 weeks old, imitated specific facial gestures and that there was an association between the infants behaviour and that of the adult model.

Question 5

Strengths of caregiver and infant interactions?

Answer 5

+ interactional synchrony has been demonstrated in many studies. Eg. Meltzoff and Moore’s study suggests that the imitation of behaviours are not learned and are innate.
+ Murray and Trevarthens study.
+ Abravanal and DeYong observed infant behaviour when interacting with an object that looked like a human mouth opening and closing. Infants between 12 weeks and 5years made little response. Shows they don’t just imitate what they see.

Question 6

Murray and Trevarthans study.

Answer 6

Murray and Trevarthen:
got mothers to interact with their babies over a video monitor.
-In the next part of the study the babies were played a tape of their mother so she was not responding to them.
-The babies tried to attract their mothers attention but when they gained no response they turned away.
-shows the infant is actively eliciting a response rather than just displaying a response that has been rewarded.
-shows importance of interactional synchrony.

Question 7

Weaknesses of caregiver and infant interaction?

Answer 7

• Babies cannot communicate so psychologists are relying on their inferences. They cannot be sure that infants are actually trying to communicate.
• The expressions tested (tongue sticking out, yawning, and smiling) are ones that infants frequently make so they may not have been deliberately imitating what they saw.
• most studies are observational, may be observer bias.
• individual differences. All babies behave slightly differently so not all observations can be generalised to whole populations.

Question 8

Schaffer and Emerson Procedure.

Answer 8

Investigated the development of attachment in infants using a longitudinal study.
- involved 60 infants between 23weeks and 5years.
- baby and mother visited in their home every 4 weeks for a year then after 18 months.
- at each visit, mother reported infants response to being left alone in different everyday situations (eg. Pram, room, cot, with stranger).
- intensity of any protest was rated on a four point scale.
Two main attachment behaviours measured:
- separation anxiety.
- stranger anxiety.
They decided there were 4 stages in development of attachments in infants.

Question 9

What are the 4 stages of attachment?

Answer 9

1. Pre-attachment. 0-3 months.
2. Indiscriminate attachment.3-7 months
3. Discriminate attachment. 7/8 months
4. Multiple attachment. 9+ months

Question 10

Pre-attachment.

Answer 10

From six weeks of age infants become attracted to other humans, preferring them to objects and events.
This preference is shown by their smiling at peoples faces even when they are unfamiliar. They are happier in the presence of others.

Question 11

Indiscriminate attachments.

Answer 11

3-7 months.
Infants begin to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar people, smiling/interacting more with people they know.
They will still allow strangers to handle them and don’t show stranger/separation anxiety. They don’t show any preference towards any one adult.

Question 12

Discriminate attachment.

Answer 12

7/8 months.
Infants develop a specific attachment with their primary attachment figure, staying close to them.
- they show separation protest and stranger anxiety.
- Schaffer and Emerson notices this primary figure wasn’t always the person who spends the most time with the infant but more about the quality of the relationship.

Question 13

Multiple attachments.

Answer 13

8/9 months onwards.
- soon after developing their first attachment, infants develop strong emotional ties with other major caregivers, such as grandparents and non caregivers =siblings.
These are called secondary attachments.
- fear of strangers weakens but their attachment to their primary attachment figure remains the strongest.

Question 14

Strengths of stages of attachments?

Answer 14

1. Good external validity- carried out in homes (natural environment) so would be no demand characteristics. Findings can also be applied to everyday life. Has mundane realism.
2. No ethical issues- informed consent given by parents. No deception or risk of psychological harm to any pps.
3. Longitudinal design- good as same pps studied over a long period. Less confounding variables like individual differences between pps.

Question 15

Weaknesses of stages of attachment?

Answer 15

1. Biased sample- only included infants from working class populations so findings may not apply to other social groups.
2. Lacks temporal validity- conducted in 1960s, parental care changed alot since. More mothers working and more fathers staying home.
3. Data collected from study lacks reliability- relies of mothers reports of infants behaviour. Some mothers less sensitive to protest by infant so less likely to report.
4. Stage theories are inflexible, don’t take individual differences into account. Some infants form multiple attachments first instead of single.

Question 16

What did Schaffer and Emerson find about the role of the father?

Answer 16

• found fathers are less likely to be primary attachment figure than the mothers.
• maybe because they spend less time with infants or are emotionally less sensitive so aren’t as psychologically equipped.
• female hormone oestrogen underlies caring behaviour so women are more orientated to interpersonal goals.
• however men do also form attachments with their children.

Question 17

Studies into father attachments.

Answer 17

1. Geiger showed that fathers’ play interactions are more exciting and pleasurable while mothers are more nurturing and affectionate. Supports idea of fathers being playmates rather than caregivers.
   However
2. Lamb found children often prefer interacting with fathers when in +ve emotional state and mothers are preferred during distress to seek comfort. Supports father being preferred as playmate but only in some conditions.

Question 18

Evaluation for role of the father?

Answer 18

+ children with secure attachment with father have good peer relationships. Fewer problem behaviours showing positive influence of fathers.
+ children without fathers do less well at school and show high levels or aggression and risk taking.
- inconsistent research findings.
- some children are born into single parent families without a father. Some studies show the absence of father has no effect.

Question 19

Konrad Lorenz aim and procedure?

Answer 19

Ethologist who wanted to investigate imprinting where the youngsters follow and form an attachment with the first large moving object they meet.
Procedure:
-He took a clutch of gosling eggs and divided them into two:
1. left to naturally hatch with their mother.
2. placed in an incubator. The first thing they saw was Lorenz when they hatched.
- he marked the two groups to distinguish between them and placed them together to monitor behaviour.

Question 20

Konrad Lorenz findings?

Answer 20

The goslings quickly divided themselves.
Group one followed their natural mother and group 2 followed Lorenz without showing any recognition to their natural mother.
- also noticed that imprinting only happens within a critical period (within 4-25 hours).
- the bonds proved to be irreversible and long-term.
- also found that this early imprinting had an effect on later mate preferences (called sexual imprinting )and they would usually choose the same kind upon which they were imprinted. This was investigated in birds.

Question 21

Evaluation of Lorenz’s study?

Answer 21

+ research support- Guiton demonstrated that chickens exposed to yellow rubber gloves during feeding in first few weeks imprinted on the gloves.

• Found that imprinting is actually reversible. Guiton found that he could reverse the chickens imprinting with the gloves by allowing them to spend time with their own species. They were able to engage in normal sexual behaviour with other chickens.
• Lorenz researched imprinting in birds so can’t accurately be generalised to humans and other species so lacks population validity.

Question 22

Harlow procedure

Answer 22

• created two wire ‘mothers’ each with a different head.
• One wire mother was wrapped in a soft cloth but provided no food.
• the other was a plain wire mother providing food.
• infant rhesus monkeys were separated from their mother at birth and studied for a period of 165 days.
• placed in a cage with either one or both wire mothers.
• the time that the monkeys spent with each of the two mothers was measured. Observations were made of the monkey’s responses to being frightened by a mechanical teddy bear, and how they coped with exploring a new room full of unfamiliar toys.

Question 23

Harlow aim

Answer 23

To demonstrate that mother love (attachment) was not based on the feeding bond between mother and infant as predicted by learning theory.

Question 24

Harlow findings

Answer 24

• All monkeys spent most of their time on the soft cloth mother, regardless of whether it had feeding bottle or not.
• Those fed by the exposed wire mother only stayed on it long enough to get milk and then returned to the soft cloth mother.
• When frightened all clung to the soft cloth mother and when playing with new objects the monkeys kept one foot on the soft cloth mother.
• When placed in a new environment they were not confident enough to explore the room unless the soft cloth mother was with them.
• the ones with just the wire mother had diarrhoea, sign of distress.

Question 25

Harlow conclusion

Answer 25

Rhesus monkeys have an innate, unlearned need for contact comfort, suggesting that attachment concerns emotional security more than food.

Question 26

Harlow evaluation

Answer 26

+ Research support: Schaffer and Emerson also found that food is not necessary for attachment to form. They discovered that babies are often attached to people who play with them, rather than people who feed them.

• Unethical. The monkeys were removed from their mothers, which would have been very traumatic, and they were then deliberately scared to see how they would react. This led to long-term emotional harm.
• Difficult to generalise the findings to humans. Humans are psychologically very different and the upbringing environments also vary. The bond between human infants and their attachment figure is also a-lot more complex.

Question 27

What is the learning theory of attachment ?

Answer 27

Proposes that all behaviour is learned rather than being innate or inherited.
Behaviour is learnt through either classical or operant conditioning.
Referred to as ‘cupboard love theory’ as it suggests attachment is based on the providing of food.

Question 28

Classical conditioning

Answer 28

-An infant is born with certain reflex responses, the stimulus of food is an unconditioned stimulus and it produces the reflex of pleasure, which is an
unconditioned response.
-person providing food = neutral stimulus but over time they become associated with the pleasure gained from food.
-The person becomes a conditioned stimulus that produces pleasure as a
conditioned response.
According to classical conditioning this is how the attachment bond develops.

Question 29

Operant conditioning

Answer 29

Operant conditioning strengthens attachment.

• The baby receives positive reinforcement (when behaviour produces a pleasant consequence) for crying when they are hungry as the caregiver feeds them.
• The caregiver receives negative reinforcement (when behaviour removes something unpleasant) for feeding their baby when they cry as feeding the baby makes the crying stop.

Question 30

Learning theory strengths

Answer 30

+Learning theory is plausible and scientific as it is founded in established theory.
+Research support: Pavlov conducted an experiment on classical conditioning with dogs. He found that dogs could salivate at the sound of a bell.

Question 31

Learning theory weaknesses

Answer 31

• Harlow separated infant Rhesus monkeys from their mothers and put them in cages. Milk was provided either by a wire mesh ‘surrogate mother’ or one made of comfortable soft cloth. The monkeys clung to the soft cloth ‘mother’ even if it did not provide milk. suggests that comfort is more important than food in forming attachments.
• Schaffer and Emerson findings.
• This theory explains how attachments form but not why they form. According to Bowlby’s theory of attachment infants form an attachment to their caregiver to ensure they are protected.